text:
This fact sheet provides basic information about bromelain—common names, usefulness and safety, and resources for more information.
Common Names: bromelain, pineapple extract
(Pineapple Plant) Ananas comosus
Bromelain is a mixture of enzymes found in the pineapple plant. Pineapple is native to the Americas but is now grown throughout the world in tropical and subtropical regions. Historically, natives of Central and South America used pineapple for a variety of ailments, such as digestive disorders.
Currently, bromelain is used as a dietary supplement for nasal swelling and inflammation, osteoarthritis, cancer, poor digestion, and muscle soreness. Topical (applied to the skin) bromelain is used for wounds and burns.
Bromelain is obtained from the stem or fruit of the pineapple. It is sold in the form of a powder, cream, tablet, or capsule, and it may be used alone or in combination with other ingredients.
There have been several studies on the use of bromelain for nasal swelling and inflammation and for removing dead skin from burns. Little research has been done on other uses of bromelain.
A systematic review of the evidence indicates that bromelain is helpful in relieving symptoms of acute nasal and sinus inflammation when used in combination with standard medications.
Research in human and animal studies has found that topical bromelain preparations may help remove dead skin from burns. However, not enough evidence exists to show whether topical bromelain helps to treat burns and other wounds.
There is conflicting evidence about whether bromelain, alone or in combination with other ingredients, is helpful for osteoarthritis and for muscle soreness after exercise.
There is not enough evidence to determine if bromelain is effective for the other conditions for which it has been used, including cancer and gastrointestinal problems.
NCCIH-funded research is examining bromelain for inflammatory conditions and asthma.
There have been some reports of gastrointestinal problems, increased heart rate, and menstrual problems in people who have taken bromelain orally.
Allergic reactions may occur in individuals who are sensitive or allergic to pineapples or who may have other allergies.
Brien S, Lewith G, Walker AF, et al. Bromelain as an adjunctive treatment for moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized placebo-controlled pilot study. QJM: Monthly Journal of the Association of Physicians. 2006;99(12):841-850.
Brien S, Lewith G, Walker A, et al. Bromelain as a treatment for osteoarthritis: a review of clinical studies. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2004;1(3):251-257.
Bromelain Monograph. Alternative Medicine Review. 2010;15(4):361-368.
Bromelain. In: Blumenthal M, Goldberg A, Brinckmann J, eds. Herbal Medicine: Expanded Commission E Monographs. Newton, MA: Integrative Medicine Communications; 2000:33-35.
Bromelain. Natural Medicines Web site. Accessed at naturalmedicines.therapeuticresearch.com/ on June 3, 2015. [Database subscription].
Guo R, Canter PH, Ernst E. Herbal medicines for the treatment of rhinosinusitis: a systematic review. Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery. 2006;135(4):496-506.
Miller PC, Bailey SP, Barnes ME, et al. The effects of protease supplementation on skeletal muscle function and DOMS following downhill running. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2004;22(4):365-372.
Orsini RA. Bromelain. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. 2006;118(7):1640-1644.
Stone MB, Merrick MA, Ingersoll CD, et al. Preliminary comparison of bromelain and ibuprofen for delayed onset muscle soreness management. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. 2002;12(6):373-378.


text:
//Write a program that finds the maximal increasing sequence in an array.

using System;
class MaximumIncreasing
{
    static void Main()
    {
        //INPUT
        Console.WriteLine("Enter the sequence of numbers, separated by space:");
        string[] input = Console.ReadLine().Split();

        //SOLUTION

        string bestResult = "";
        string result = "";
        int bestLen = 0;
        int len = 1;
        for (int i = 1; i < input.Length; i++)
        {
            int lastNumber = Convert.ToInt32(input[i - 1]);
            int currentNumber = Convert.ToInt32(input[i]);

            //if the current number is the same, continue counting
            if (currentNumber > lastNumber)
            {
                len++;
                result += lastNumber;
                result += " ";
                if (i == input.Length - 1)
                {
                    if (len > bestLen)
                    {
                        result += currentNumber;
                        bestResult = result;
                    }
                }
            }

            //if not, start a new sequence
            //if there are several equal sequences in length
            //the first sequence found will be printed afterwards
            else
            {
                result += lastNumber;
                if (len > bestLen)
                {
                    bestLen = len;
                    bestResult = result;
                }
                len = 1;
                result = "";
            }

            lastNumber = Convert.ToInt32(currentNumber);
        }

        //OUTPUT
        Console.WriteLine(bestResult);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


A BIG THANKS goes out to John and Brooke for having the confidence in us to fix a problem sewer line.
John has been dealing with repeated sewer backups for quite some time, pulling the toilet and snaking the pipe from there, only to have it back up again a short time later.
We ran the sewer camera and found that there was one really bad spot causing all the trouble, so we located that section of pipe, excavated, then installed two way outside cleanouts.
This is a huge upgrade for John. Not only did we eliminate the broken section, but now he has a full 4" outside cleanout access for future cleanings.
Remember, once a year cleaning is routine for clay sewer pipes. Cut the roots BEFORE they break your pipe.
Don't forget to like us at the button below.


A new, fully traditional, Hebrew & English siddur, in which photographs give focus to the meanings of tefilah — a siddur for praying with.
Nehalel: a complete, strictly traditional siddur in which photographs depicting central meanings of the texts direct your attention to what prayers are about. Nehalel is modeled on the Nevarech bencher, which in 1999 pioneered the idea of juxtaposing prayers with photographs portraying their meanings.


St. Patrick's Day celebrations are almost here! We rounded up a list of our favorite recipes and crafts to help kick off the festivities. Don't forget to wear green!
Blarney Stone – Grab your glitter and paintbrushes and learn what a Blarney Stone is, then make one!
Four Leaf Clover Hunt – No supplies needed for clover hunting! See if you can spot any below.
Homemade Shamrock Shake – No St. Patrick's Day is complete without a shamrock shake! This recipe is a great healthy alternative.
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies – We think Sam I Am would approve of these yummy green cookies!
Rainbow Paper Craft – These make great party decor!
Watercolor Shamrock Cards – We love these crafty cards!
Shamrock Sprouts – It's still a little chilly, so these sprouts are a great indoor craft.
Shamrock T-Shirt – Turn any plain shirt into a festive St. Patricks Day shirt with this easy tutorial!
St. Patrick's Day History – Teach kids where St. Patrick's Day traditions come from!


text:
Mendelssohn and electronics don't mix at DSO's "Remix"
Sat May 20, 2017 at 1:27 pm
By J. Robin Coffelt
Ruth Reinhardt conducted the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Friday night at Dallas City Performance Hall.
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's annual Soluna International Music & Arts Festival inevitably includes some misses as well as some hits. Friday evening's performance of Felix Mendelssohn's complete incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream featured some moments of loveliness, for the most part it was one of the misses.
The Soluna Festival includes not only conventional and often ambitious orchestral and chamber music performances, but also more experimental programs in a variety of settings. This concert was part of the Dallas Symphony's Remix concert series, which is conceived as being a more casual style of symphony concert; performances take place in the smaller Dallas City Performance Hall, tickets are comparatively inexpensive, and there are snacks, free drinks and other perks. The goal is evidently to attract a younger audience of newcomers for classical music.
The downside of these concerts is that in an effort to appeal to under-40s, sometimes the whole thing can go off the rails.
The first sign of trouble emerged in the Scherzo that Mendelssohn wrote to accompany Act I of Shakespeare's play. This famously difficult music is a standard audition piece for string players–exposed and with no margin for error. An ideal performance will be delicate and precisely coordinated.
That did not happen. The orchestra, under assistant conductor Ruth Reinhardt, did not sound like itself. Strings were untidy and winds had some surprising intonation problems. Mercifully, they settled in within a few minutes, with much improved results. The music for Act II and following was mostly clean and well-balanced.
Reinhardt kept tempos moving—the Wedding March, which can seem inappropriately lugubrious, zipped along at a cheerful clip. The parodic Funeral March and the Bergomask dance, or Dance of Clowns, were suitably lighthearted, with fine solos by bassoonist Theodore Soluri and clarinetist Gregory Raden.
Vocalists were generally excellent: the Women's Voices of the Dallas Symphony Chorus proved exemplary and well-prepared by assistant chorus director Lindsay Pope. Soprano soloists Kelly Silverthorn and, especially, Alissa Roca shimmered and glowed, although their placement among the chorus, on risers at the back of the stage, hampered projection.
The extramusical elements were less successful. Lighting, by Suzanne Lavender, was certainly pretty—washes of changing color, sometimes streaked with white, added visual interest to the stage. However, the dimmer-than-usual lighting also made instrumentalists, chorus, soloists, and actors blend together into a sea of black—the small colorful accents that musicians are encouraged to wear for the Remix concerts didn't help much.
Southern Methodist University's electronic music trio Uda Essim Triangle, performing unseen from the balcony, provided brief interludes between movements of Mendelssohn's music. These fifteen- or twenty-second snippets ranged from delicate to something that resembled plumbing noises. Perhaps self-evidently, electronic music seemed out of place with the Mendelssohn, although hearing–and seeing–this ensemble in another context would be welcome.
Three actors read lines from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream both in between and over the top of Mendelssohn's incidental music. Incorporating Shakespeare's language into a performance of the music Mendelssohn wrote to accompany it is a delightful idea. However, only listeners already familiar with Shakespeare's play could have made sense of the disjointed bits of text. Actors Blake Hackler, portraying Puck and Bottom, and Christine Sanders, playing Titania and Hermia, managed to get their inflections mostly right, so that they even got a few scattered laughs. Sanders' repeated changes of scarf—what did each scarf represent?—were puzzling and a distraction. Ryan Woods, as Oberon and Theseus, needs some additional coaching in reading Shakespeare's iambic pentameter, with the objective of making this poetry sound more like conversation.
Ultimately, this was a program that proved better in concept than in execution.
This program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Saturday. mydso.com

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Business|Buried in Details, a Warning to Investors
https://nyti.ms/Qyg8H0
High & Low Finance
Buried in Details, a Warning to Investors
By Floyd Norris
The bank that put together the unusual security did well. The customers who bought it suffered large losses. No one — at least no one who traded the security — seems to have understood the risks that were hidden deep in the prospectus.
The security in question was not a large one by Wall Street standards, and it is possible that it would have worked out well for both the bank and its customers if the Dodd-Frank law had not changed the way banks calculate their capital. But it is illustrative of what can happen when a security is packaged by a firm that intends to have a contrary interest from its customers for the life of the security, and that does not clearly explain what could go wrong.
It also shows how markets can fail. Perhaps because only $28 million worth of the security was outstanding and had been primarily sold only to customers of a small number of firms, there does not seem to have been anyone watching the trading this summer who understood the disaster that was about to befall the investors who had sought safety and assured income and wound up with a large capital loss.
The security in question was extraordinarily complex in its name and its details, but simple in its selling points. It was marketed in $25 units, a popular price point for debtlike securities sold to individual investors, and it promised monthly interest payments for as long as 30 years, at which point the investor would get the $25 back. Those interest payments would fluctuate with interest rates on Treasury bills, but could not go below 3 percent a year or above 8 percent.
Wells Fargo, the bank behind the security, now says that anyone who had read the prospectus should have understood that disaster was looming in June, when news related to the security was disclosed. But that disclosure — I'll get to the details in a minute — had the opposite effect on the market. In New York Stock Exchange trading, the price leapt higher, on heavy volume, and stayed there for weeks.
The price per share was $24.88 on July 12, when trading was halted as investors learned they would get just $14.69 a share. Trading never resumed.
The difference between market expectations and realities boiled down to one fact: Wells Fargo concluded it was entitled to a payment of $10.69 a share to compensate it for the profits it would have made over the next 23 years had the security not been redeemed.
The security had a mouthful of a name: Floating Rate Structured Repackaged Asset-Backed Trust Securities Certificates, Series 2005-2. It was created and sold in 2005 by Wachovia Securities, then part of Wachovia Bank, which was renamed Wells Fargo Advisors after Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia. The bank called the securities Strats, a quasi-acronym.
Underlying that security was another one, a "trust preferred" security issued by JPMorgan Chase and sold to institutional investors. That security paid annual interest of 5.85 percent and matured in 2035. Trust preferreds were hybrid securities that appealed to banks because bank regulators treated them as capital but the Internal Revenue Service allowed banks to deduct the interest paid.
JPMorgan could not redeem the security early — unless tax laws or bank capital rules changed. But when the capital rules were changed by the Dodd-Frank law, JPMorgan gained the right to redeem the security at face value, something it was all but sure to do given the current low level of interest rates. On June 11, it announced plans for the redemption.
Investors in the Wells Fargo security owned a proportionate amount of the JPMorgan security, but they also were the counterparties to Wells Fargo in an interest rate swap. That bank would collect the 5.85 percent coupon from JPMorgan and pay out 3 to 8 percent interest to investors in the security. The bank would suffer if interest rates went up, and profit if they fell. If JPMorgan redeemed the security when rates were low, the Strats investors would have to pay to terminate the hedge.
That was disclosed, on Page S-12 of the prospectus supplement, and investors were warned that "this loss could be quite substantial." Wells Fargo thinks that was perfectly adequate disclosure, even though no examples were given to indicate the possible magnitude of the termination payment.
When the redemption took place, JPMorgan paid out the equivalent of $25.6541 per Strat share, including some accrued interest. Wells Fargo kept $10.9683 to compensate it for the early cancellation of the interest rate swap, and paid out what was left, $14.6857, to the public investors.
The effect was devastating. An investor who owned this security since it was created in 2005 collected about $6.70 in interest per share, and had a capital loss of $10.31 from an investment that was pitched as offering a modest but safe yield.
"It was a very conservative security," said one investor, a computer science professor who lost money on an investment he had thought was "a very nice, Grandma type" of security. The professor, who asked that his name not be used because he would not like the publicity, said the prospectus did not make the risks clear. With better disclosure, he said, he would have invested his money elsewhere.
Wells Fargo did much better. While there were some months in 2006 and 2007 when it paid more in interest than it was collecting, over all it took in about $3.32 per Strat share more from JPMorgan than it paid out to investors over the life of the security. Add in the $10.97 the bank received for canceling the swap, and it seems to have done very well.
Not so, says Elise Wilkinson, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman. The bank had hedged its own exposure to that swap, she said, and it lost money on that hedge. "Substantially all of that payment was used in connection with unwinding hedges," she said of the $10.97 a share Wells Fargo received. She said the "securities were structured to meet investor demand at the time" they were issued, "and the circumstances governing termination were fully disclosed to investors."
She added that Wells Fargo might have had to pay money to investors on the swap if it had been terminated when interest rates were high, meaning the investors could have gotten a windfall instead of large losses. That strikes me as protesting too much. Under those circumstances, JPMorgan would not have wanted to redeem its security, and would not have done so.
I am told that one way to describe the Wells Fargo security is as follows: "Effectively, it was as if the investor entered into a floating rate hedge overlay on top of the JPMorgan preferreds." If that makes sense to you, then you were sophisticated enough to invest in this security.
Ed Hall, a lawyer and blogger who has written on Strats — and who brought the security to my attention — says he thinks it is obvious that the investors had no understanding of the risks. "Wells needed to place a clear warning at the start of the prospectus, rather than buried deep in the prospectus," he said.
I checked data on short sales of the Strat security. The already small short position declined during the last two weeks of June, as the share price rose. Any speculator who understood what was happening could have stepped in and made a short sale that was sure to be richly rewarded. But no one did so.
Wells Fargo says that when the security was redeemed, more than $2 million of it was held by Wells Fargo retail customers. They evidently were given no warning of the implications of what was happening. No Wells Fargo analyst covered the security, and there is no indication that any of its advisers understood what the bank says it believes should have been clear to anyone reading the prospectus.
Did the disclosures in the prospectus comply with securities laws? Perhaps they did. Did they actually provide the information that investors needed, in a way they could understand? They did not.


text:
Degas' Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1879-81)
Degas' The Little Dancer Aged Fourteen captivates art lovers but is she art? If she is just a pretty little dancer, cleverly executed, she is - according to our definition of art - mere reproduction. If, though, she is Degas' imagination of himself taking one perfect, confident step onstage she is art. Does she represent that moment in Degas' mind when he conceived her through total identification with her performance? She ought to because she has mesmerized so many experts for so long. But how can we be sure?
Each time an artist begins a work they can feel like a young dancer about to take their first public step onstage. Each time is like the first time. Nerves combined with practiced professionalism produce the same calm, confident move as the Little Girl's. Besides artists often identify with children. Their innocence and purity can symbolize the perfection of a creative mind just as the infant Christ symbolizes the purified soul of each individual in esoteric Christianity.1 Degas stressed the dancer's age, fourteen, in the title too which suggests she is not just about to step on stage but into puberty and adulthood. She is full of symbolism.
Many critics have described art as theatrical and performative. Rembrandt often painted figures as though on stage and Manet portrayed actors on several occasions.2 Watteau's Gilles, an earlier French masterpiece (far left), presents an actor alone on stage and is widely recognized as a self-representation.3
L: Watteau, Gilles (c. 1718-19)
R: Degas, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1879-81) Metropolitan Museum, New York. The original wax sculpture is at National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; other bronze versions are at the Tate Liverpool, UK and The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK.
When The Little Dancer was first exhibited people thought her ugly for reasons that do not concern us. What does is her concave nose, a feature common in children but rarer in adults. And, although a ballerina, Marie van Geothem, posed for the statue, it is well-known that Degas mixed his own physiognomy with features from other people's faces. Indeed he is one of the few artists widely recognized as practicing "face fusion."4
Not surprisingly, perhaps, Degas' most prominent facial characteristic was also a concave nose, longer than hers but concave nonetheless. It can be seen both in his early self-portrait (far left) and a detail of a photographic self-portrait taken forty years later (near left).
Left: Degas, Detail of Self-portrait (1855)
Right: Degas, Detail of photograph with Jacques-Emile Blanche and Jules Taschereau (1895)
The concave nose was such a defining characteristic of Degas' face that Picasso used it time and again in his depictions of Degas. Indeed it is only the presence of that nose that identifies Picasso's figures as Degas.
Left: Picasso, Detail of Degas Fantasizing. Faun Whispering in a Woman's Ear (1971)
Right: Picasso, Detail of An Artist: Degas Painting (1968)
Now take another look at the Dancer. Her concave nose so resembles his that he must have intentionally fused his defining feature with the model's face. Her pouting lips and chin resemble his as well. The only other possibility is that he chose his model because she resembled him. These similarities are what artists look for: Picasso would not have missed them.
See conclusion below
Left: Detail of Degas' Little Dancer (1879-81)
Right: Detail inverted of Degas' Self-portrait (1855)
The realism of the Little Dancer is misleading. The casual observer takes what they see for reality and enjoys the historical recreation. The imaginative observer, though, like the artist, will recognize the little dancer on the edge of puberty as a poetic representation of the artist's own androgynous mind conceiving the sculpture itself. That is art; mere reproduction is not.
More Works by Degas
Degas' Edouard Manet at the Races (c.1865)
See what Degas makes of a Delacroix and thus, perhaps, what you should too....
Degas' Study of Delacroix's Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople (c.1860)
Veiled images are hidden in even the most simple and natural-looking sketches
Degas' Galloping Horse (n.d.)
1. Annie Besant, Esoteric Christianity [first publ. 1905] (Quest Books) 2006, pp. 32-3
2. Svetlana Alpers, Rembrandt's Enterprise: The Studio and the Market (The University of Chicago Press) 1990, pp. 80-1; Manet's stage paintings include The Tragic Actor, The Spanish Dancer, The Spanish Singer , The Cafe-Concert and Faure as Hamlet.
3. Dora Panofsky, "Gilles or Pierrot?: Iconographic Notes on Watteau" Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XXXIX (1952) p.330; Linda Nochlin, "Watteau: Some Questions of Interpretation", Art in America 73 (Jan. 1985), p.71
4. Felix Baumann, "Degas' Early Self-Portraits" in Degas Portraits (Zurich: Kunsthaus) 1994, p. 164; Luzius Keller in "Portraiture between Tradition and Avant-Garde: Proust and Degas" in Degas Portraits, op.cit., p. 13; Mari Kálmán Meller, "Review: Degas Portraits. Zürich and Tübingen", Burlington Magazine 137, April 1995, p. 269; Carol Armstrong, Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas (University of Chicago) 1991, p. 107
Original Publication Date on EPPH: 07 Mar 2011. © Simon Abrahams. Articles on this site are the copyright of Simon Abrahams. To use copyrighted material in print or other media for purposes beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Websites may link to this page without permission (please do) but may not reproduce the material on their own site without crediting Simon Abrahams and EPPH.


The Board of Health addresses conditions that may be detrimental to public health and promotes health practices that enhance the community.
The Board of Health meets at 7:00 AM in the EDNR Conference Room, First Floor, City Hall.
For additional information, contact City Health Officers at 717-291-4707 or 717-291-4714.
For assistance in accessing this facility, please contact a CityHealth Officer prior to the meeting date.


text:
prof. dr. Edita Baltrėnaitė-Gedienė
Member at the Committee of Natural and Technical Sciences of the Research Council of Lithuanian since 2021.
She is a doctor of technological sciences, chief researcher of the Research Institute of Environmental Protection of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU), scientific head of the 'Laboratory of Biocoal Environmental Technologies' and a member of the VGTU Environmental Engineering Research Committee.
She graduated with honours from the VGTU Environmental Protection Engineering programme (2002) and the VGTU Environmental Management and Clean Production programme in English (2004). She defended a doctoral dissertation in the field of Environmental engineering and landscaping on the topic 'Research and Evaluation of the Transport of Heavy Metal from Soil to Wood' at VGTU (2007, supervisor - prof. habil. dr. Donatas Butkus). In 2010, she obtained the title of associate professor of technological sciences, and in 2016, the title of professor of technological sciences.
Her areas of research include biogeochemical migration in the environment, biogeochemical and engineering barriers.
She is the co-author of 5 patents of the Republic of Lithuania and 1 patent of the European Union. She is also the author and co-author of 102 scientific publications (h-index (WoS) - 12), co-author of 4 scientific monographs ('Sustainable Environmental Protection Technologies. Contaminant Biofiltration, Adsorption and Stabilisation' (Springer, 2020), 'Small Bioreactors for Management of Biodegradable Waste' (Springer, 2018), 'The Sustainable Role of the Tree in Environmental Protection Technologies' (Springer, 2016) and 'Tvarus medžio vaidmuo aplinkos apsaugos technologijose' (Vilnius: Technika, 2016)).
She is a member of the EU's organisation for 'Climate Neutral and Smart Cities', member of the Environmental Institute of Scientific Networks (EISN-Institute), senior member of the Hong Kong Society of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, advisory editor of the international journals 'Journal of Environmental Engineering and Landscape Management' and 'Environmental Modelling and Assessment'. Since 2017, she has been appointed as member of the Agricultural and Biological Sciences advisory group to 'Cambridge Scholars Publishing'.
She underwent trainings at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the Josef Stefan Research Institute in Slovenia, and the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry. She is in cooperation with the Institute of Urban Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Hyderabad (India), KU Leuven University (Belgium), UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education (Netherlands), Montclair State University (USA), Illinois Institute of Technology (USA), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Institute in Zurich, University of Helsinki (Finland), Tomsk State University (Russian Federation), University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Ancona (Italy).
She was a member of the scientific committee of 3 international conferences in Australia, Poland and Turkey, and the secretary of 5 international conferences.


I was watching the news this morning as the anchors were discussing the various politicians and past presidents who had the keen ability to "influence" world leaders and thereby shape foreign policy.
As I listened, it occurred to me that the key to any type of leadership is the ability to influence others. Political or otherwise.
It also occurred to me that some people have a natural ability to influence while others have to work harder at it.
Either way, influence is necessary in positions of leadership and respect is the key.
No matter your political affiliation or allegiance, I think we would all agree that strengthening relationships and having the ability to influence others are critical in achieving success.
Take a moment and reflect...think about the people in your life (past and present) that have positively influenced you. What qualities do they have that you admire?
I have another question: What are you doing to increase your influence with others?
John Maxwell highlights the fact that how we influence people will determine how many, how long, and how effectively we influence them.
1. Force— There is no choice in the decision.
3. Manipulation— There's a winner and a loser.
4. Positional— We follow because we have to.
5. Exchange— We both win something.
6. Persuasion— We follow because we want to.
7. Respect— We follow because of the request and respect for the influencer.
What method of influence are you mastering?
If you are interested learning more about becoming a person of influence or strengthening your leadership skills, enroll today in the upcoming 4 week tele-course titled "Becoming a Person of Influence." Facilitated by Coach Rothar Boswell, a Certified John Maxwell Coach and affiliate coach with NikkiandChris.com, this course is designed to help move your forward so that you can have a positive impact on the lives of others and accomplish your goals along the way.